Integration design and control strategy of sCO 2 Brayton cycle for concentrated solar power system

The concentrated solar power (CSP) system integrated with supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2) Brayton cycle is considered as the major development trend of clean energy technology in mitigating climate change and promoting sustainable energy owing to its more compact structure, higher efficiency and lower cost. While the system integration and control are more complex because the thermal energy storage and heat exchange units are obliged to be provided with capacity and property matching with sCO 2 compression and expansion units. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the whole system modeling and dynamic simulation of sCO 2-CSP plants. In the paper, running logic of the integrated system is determined and novel system dynamic simulation platform is built. Moreover, for the sake of optimizing the system design, different control strategies are further studied. When the extremum-seeking control strategy is used, the average daily generating capacity of the system is 2.06% higher than that of the traditional fixed inventory control strategy; and when iterative learning control strategy is used, the average daily generating capacity of the system is 2.15% higher than that of the traditional fixed inventory control strategy. The progress of the technology will promote the development of new power systems and early realization of carbon neutrality.